Offices Held

Cornet, R. Horse Gds. 1712, capt. Aug. 1716-18.

Treasurer of the navy 1724-34; P.C. 4 May 1732; jt. vice-treasurer [I] 1734-46; P.C. [I] 19 July 1734; jt. collector for life of tonnage and poundage in the port of London Apr. 1743; capt. of yeomen of the guard 1746-d.; commr. of Greenwich Hospital.

Biography

In March 1718, Byng, aged 18, was granted a pension of £600 p.a. on the Irish establishment for 31 years with effect from the previous December, ‘in consideration of the long and faithful services of his father’.1 At a by-election in 1721, caused by his father’s elevation to the peerage, he was returned unopposed for Plymouth on the Admiralty interest. In 1724 he succeeded his father as treasurer of the navy. In 1727, Lord Torrington having settled the Southill estate on him on his marriage,2 he was returned for his county, which he continued to represent as a government supporter until he succeeded to the peerage in 1733.